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Working Papers | 2004

An Empirical View of the Different Types of Consumer Promotions in India

Abraham Koshy and Dang Jha Priya

The paper provides an empirical view of the range of promotions launched in the Indian market place from 1996 to 2003. The different promotions include free gift offers, price offs, extra product offers, exchange offers, buy-more-and-save offers, contests and sweepstakes. The most frequently launched promotion is the free gift offer followed by the sweepstake offer and extra product offer. Some differences in trends are found across FMCG, Consumer Durable and Service sectors. A detailed description of each type of promotion is provided in order to highlight the different incentives offered by such promotions.

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Working Papers | 2004

Performance of Greenhouse Coupled to Earth-Tube-Heat-Exchanger in Closed-Loop Mode

Girja Sharan, Jadhav Ratan, and Prakash H

An experimental greenhouse coupled to an Earth Tube Heat Exchanger (ETHE) in closed-loop mode has been installed at Kothara (23o 40N 72o 38E), India. Area is hot and extremely arid. ETHE is used to warm the greenhouse in winter nights and cool it in hot days. The saw-tooth house is of 6 m span, 20 m length and has ridge height of 3.5 m. ETHE consists of eight ms pipes, each of 20 cm dia and 20 m long. A centrifugal blower powered by 7.5 hp motor moves the air through the system. Volume flow rate of air is 7200 m3 per hour, which makes for about 20 air changes per hour. ETHE was able to heat the house easily from 9oC to 22-23oC in half hour in the cold winter nights. Opening of side and ridge vents from 11 A.M. to 4 P.M. and fogging at hourly interval kept the house below 34oC till the end of February. Operation of the ETHE became necessary from April. Operation of ETHE reduced the temperature by 7oC below the ambient. ETHE offers the advantage that it uses no water which is scarce. Results of the first cropping trial showed that tomato yield was 2.7 times the open field yield in this area, and water used for irrigation nearly 34% less than that used in open field.

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Working Papers | 2004

Ethics in Organizations: The Case of Tata Steel

Ganesh M P and Sunil Kumar Maheshwari

The concern for ethical decision-making among the regulators, social groups and managers has substantially increased since failure of some of the prominent business organizations like Shell and Enron owing to strong social condemn of some of their business practices. This paper reviews literature to address this concern by examining and discussing significant issues of ethical decision making in organizations. Literature shows that authors have frequently used ethics, morality and values interchangeably in the context of organizational behavior. Simultaneously, the research to examine the linkage of ethical decision-making with other organizational construct is inadequate. This paper tries to fill these gaps by distinguishing ethics, morality and values in organizational context and by developing a comprehensive framework of organizational ethical decision-making and behavior in organizations. The framework identifies three groups of variables, which significantly influence the ethical decision-making and behavior of individuals in organizations: a) moral intensity, b) intrinsic factors and c) extrinsic factors. The framework is used to analyze the implementation of Code of Conduct at Tata Steel. Based on the case and literature review few propositions are suggested. They explain the linkages of these variables with ethical decision-making could guide future research in this field. The framework will also help practicing managers to concentrate on key organizational issues to sustain long-term interests of the organizations.

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Working Papers | 2004

Unit Root Tests: Results from some recent tests applied to select Indian macroeconomic variables

Vineet Virmani

Results from newly developed unit roots tests of ERS (1996), PN (1996), NP (2001) and LM (1994) are compared against their traditional counterparts (ADF, PP and KPSS) on select Indian macroeconomic data. Results from ERS, PN and NP are broadly in agreement. However, using the general to specific criterion of Hall (1994) and the Modified Information Criterion (MIC) of NP for lag length selection, it is found that different lag length can lead to different results. Furthermore, results from using these criteria are also sensitive to the maximum lag length. Both KPSS and its modified version, LM, are found to be prohibitively sensitive to the lag length used. Since as of now no theoretical criterion exists for lag length selection for tests which test the null of stationarity, their use should be avoided, even for the purpose of so-called 'confirmation'. Another important finding is that frequency of the data and span covered by the sample size plays an important role and whenever feasible, tests must be conducted with as many different frequencies as the availability of data permits. It is not only a large sample size that is important, but also the span covered, an issue raised long ago by Campbell and Perron (1991).

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Working Papers | 2004

Challenges in sustaining a hospital: lessons for managing healthcare institutions

Bhat Ramesh and Sunil Kumar Maheshwari

One of the important components of the private health care sector has been health care facilities set up by corporate sector. The financial sustainability of these facilities is closely linked to the financial performance of the main business. In this paper we examine a case of one such hospital which is part of a corporate facing difficult time and its revival strategy. The revival strategy of a hospital presented here provides many interesting ideas of reviving hospitals which are going through difficult times. In some sense the government hospitals have many similarities like a corporate hospital dedicated to its employees. Like dedicated corporate hospital, the government facilities are required to provide free care or highly subsidised care to its users and depend on financial allocations from government. Both dedicated corporate hospital and government facility depend on budget allocations which in turn depend on good financial health of corporate and good fiscal position of government respectively. Tinplate Hospital, one of the oldest hospitals in Jamshedpur, was started to extend medical care facilities for its employees in the early 1940. It graduated into a 210-bedded hospital with 35 doctors and 187 supporting staff in 1990s. The parent company was facing serious financial losses in late 1990s. Due to recurring losses, inadequate operating performances and increasing expenditure the management of the parent company was in a dilemma whether to close down the hospital or at least downsize the staff to save an annual expenditure of nearly Rs. 30 million. The hospital redefined its offer of services, undertook leadership changes and improved operations to achieve financial independence. It continues to provide free medical facilities to nearly 28000 members of 5500 families of the employees of the parent company.

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Working Papers | 2004

Macroeconomic Framework for Development in Gujarat

Ravindra H. Dholakia

The paper begins by discussing need for developing a regional accounting framework and estimating relevant variables to formulate realistic growth targets and appropriate development strategy in the reform era for the Gujarat State as a case. The study then examines growth experience in various sectors of the state and derives growth potential of the economy in medium and long term. Elementary regional accounting framework and estimates of crucial macroeconomic aggregates at the state level in India are attempted for the first time for Gujarat to derive implications on resource availability and investment requirement to achieve alternative growth targets. The study finds that Gujarat is a high saving society comparable to China and Korea, but invests much less domestically. Although it a net importer internationally, it is a major net exporter within the country. The paper also attempts to identify the prime movers or principal drivers of the economic growth in the state by fitting a simultaneous equations model on the recent time series data on Gujarat. Electricity, gas & water supply; storage & communications; construction; real estates and rainfall are the prime movers in Gujarat. The paper also examines the social and human development aspects and explores how they can be integrated with the macroeconomic growth model in Gujarat. The paper concludes by discussing strategic policy interventions to achieve the development goals of the state.

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Working Papers | 2004

Financial Status of Rural Poor: A Study in Udaipur District

Parhi Smita and Sriram M S

The paper discusses the findings of a primary survey carried out in one village in Udaipur District of Rajasthan. The objectives of the study were to understand the financial flows of the rural poor and to have an insight into their financial status. Data was collected from 36 households classified as below-poverty-line on various aspects through a questionnaire. The findings indicate that the overall levels of indebtedness of these poor families are not alarming, as they have sufficient assets. The poor borrow from various sources to meet their needs. The most striking finding was that the poor resort to borrowing from the local money lender even for asset purchase, while they stash away their savings in earthen pots. Both these indicate the failure of the financial institutions in capitalizing on a small market opportunity. Most of the borrowings particularly for social consumption come from relatives-the poor seem to be juggling around with loans that cost heavily along with some interest free informal loans to manage their liquidity. The findings also support the possibility of differential pricing of loan products using social controls on end use monitoring-this is evidenced by the controls exercised by relatives in funding social consumption beyond certain limits. On the savings it was possible to conclude that the poor look for security more than liquidity and returns as an attribute. This study re-confirms the earlier findings that health related expenses are one of the major causes of indebtedness amongst the poor.

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Working Papers | 2004

Human resource issues and its implications for health sector reforms

Bhat Ramesh and Sunil Kumar Maheshwari

Given the growing complexities and challenges the health sector faces, reforms in this sector are inevitable. Often health sector reforms aimed to address many of these deficiencies and ensuring effectiveness and efficiency of resource use, they focus on making the health systems responsive through strengthening financial systems, ensuring local participation and public private partnerships, and autonomy of health facilities. The reform process, among other things, intrinsically makes some fundamental assumptions some of which are as follows: high organisational commitment of health care providers, high professional commitment of health care providers, and adequate skills of health care providers. This paper examines the commitment of district level health officials in the newly carved out state of Chhattisgarh in India. Since development oriented HR practices (HRD) are powerful tools to commit people working in health sector to enhance the quality of care, we believe that health sector reforms will have to concentrate on human resource issues and practices more than ever before in near future. The papers attempts to examine the following questions: (i) what is status of professional commitment, organisational commitment and technical competencies of health officials? (ii) what are the characteristics of human resource management practices in the health sector in the state? and (iii) how these management practices are linked with professional and organisational commitment? Finally the paper discusses the implications of these to health sector reform process.

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Working Papers | 2004

Microfinance and the State: Exploring areas and structures of collaboration

Sriram M S

This paper examines the role of state in reaching out financial services to the poor in India. The current players in reaching these services include the formal banks and co-operatives. In addition, there are several voluntary efforts that are being undertaken to ensure that financial services reach the unbanked. The paper then examines the role of the state. The role of the state is seen in three segments-direct, participatory and regulatory aspects. The paper argues that the present structuring of aid to poor and to the rural areas need to be relooked. It argues under its direct role it should put in generalized aid that goes towards aspects that affect the population at large-like creating infrastructure, providing information and access to markets. On the partnerships, the paper argues that all aid aimed at reaching individuals has to be routed through partner institutions which take up assessments on a professional basis, so that the relationship built with these institutions continue much beyond the one time dispensation of aid. It argues that this would minimize patronage dispensation by parties who are not a part of the implementing agency. Based on the current scan of the players in the market that serve the poor, the paper also suggests regulatory interventions at the policy level.

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Working Papers | 2004

Liberalisation and Law on Comparative advertising in India

Akhileshwar Pathak

With the liberalisation and globalisation of the Indian economy, as could be expected, firms have been aggressively and vigorously promoting their products and services. These practices raise questions about truthfulness and fairness of representation of products and services. Not only the consumers but even the firms need adequate law against unfair trade practices to have some 'rules of the game' for competing among themselves. In a competitive environment, every representation of a product or service, is about what 'others are not'. This paper reviews the law in India on representations (advertisements) which have an element of comparison. The provisions on this aspect formed a part of the Unfair Trade Practices under the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act. In the changing context of proliferation of advertisements, the law needed to be further strengthened in its application. To the contrary, even the existing law has been liquidated with the repeal of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act. It has been suggested that the same protection against unfair trade practices have been available under the Consumer Protection Act. Thus, the repeal of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act would not be of any significance. However, within the structure of the Consumer Protection Act, competing firms cannot be 'consumers' to approach a consumer forum. The paper illustrates that the opening up of the economy, on its own, is not going to create and sustain competition. Appropriate law, adequate enforcement, infrastructure and quick dispute settlement mechanism would be needed to sustain competition.

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